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originally posted in:Super Good Advice
Edited by A 3 Legged Goat:
10/6/2013 12:17:56 PM
5
Creating Destiny's Cohesive World
[b]"Bungie's Brave New World." | [/b] [url=https://www.bungie.net/7_SGA-Master-Archive-Thread/en-us/Groups/Post?id=61330820&groupId=39865#referred-][b]Thread 2 of 7 [/b][/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/7_Bungie39s-biggest-lesson-to-learn-from-Halo-to-Des/en/Forum/Post?id=61382767#referred-]Previously on Super Good Advice[/url], we asked ourselves about the biggest lessons that Bungie needs to learn to create a unified Destiny. Today I want to take a closer look at this concept of a cohesive world. [b]What will it take to bring a universe like that to life?[/b] In my mind, there are three important elements that help to contribute towards this goal.
[b]First, every activity in Destiny needs to have a fictional basis in the universe.[/b] In Bungie's Halo we'd have situations in the competitive multiplayer where we had spartans shooting at spartans in a variety of venues, but there never was an explanation for why we were there.
Multiplayer for the sake of multiplayer is well and good, but if our Guardians are going to have an overarching narrative in this game, all of our actions must have purpose. Such theming runs the risk of coming off as contrived, but if Bungie pulls it off, the experience that Destiny creates will become more powerful as a result.
[b]Second, rewards from playing any mode need to be relevant to other activities.[/b] In Bungie's Halo there was a huge disconnect between campaign and multiplayer; advancing in one of the modes didn't impact your experience in the other.
To unify the normally separate worlds of cooperative and competitive, Bungie needs to design rewards that are valuable to many different playstyles. For example, treasures found in the cooperative mode should carry over to the competitive mode. Blurring the lines between modes can cause problems, but if done properly, players won't feel like they are wasting their time by diverting their attention from their main activity.
[b]Finally, Destiny needs to evolve and grow as time goes on.[/b] In Bungie's Halo players would often experience the Campaign once and never touch it again because they had "completed" the story. That's a lot of effort and time invested by Bungie to create these expansive play spaces that are only good for one use before fading into obscurity.
To create a living world, players need to be given reasons to constantly revisit old modes and areas. Players should never feel a sense of completion, they should be pushed to continue the Legend of their Guardian by experiencing new challenges and content. It's an exhausting prospect, but that's the sort of challenge Bungie needs to tackle to deliver on their vision of an epic adventure that spans the length of 10 years.
[b]What do you think of these three approaches towards creating a cohesive universe?[/b] How would you theme different game modes to make them fit into the lore of Destiny? What type of rewards do you look forward to earning in Destiny, and how should they be awarded? In what ways do you hope Destiny will grow and evolve?
Super Good Advice: [b]Don't go fishing while your house is on fire[/b].
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[quote]First, every activity in Destiny needs to have a fictional basis in the universe.[/quote] Agreed. And that's easy given everything but competitive multiplayer involving killing other Guardians. Destiny's in a different position from past Bungie titles in that you go somewhere to do something rather than selecting it from a menu. Beyond that, though, I don't really feel the need to stick any compelling fictional wrapper on some arena / coliseum / combat zone experience. You're fighting other Guardians for fun and prizes; dying by alien NPC hands might be serious business, but killing your friends enemies and your friends is good sport. There will be some fourth wall breakage. [quote]Second, rewards from playing any mode need to be relevant to other activities.[/quote] [quote]Blurring the lines between modes can cause problems, but if done properly, players won't feel like they are wasting their time by diverting their attention from their main activity.[/quote] On the subject of doing things properly I'd say the time invested and value of the rewards (apart from the gameplay itself which should be its own reward) should be equivalent across different activities. None of this farming for x's payouts to use in y that seems designed to bolster lower populations in x activity. [quote]Finally, Destiny needs to evolve and grow as time goes on.[/quote] Without gating off a campaign worth of content that players expect to be available at launch into episodes you have to wait for. That means a lot of extra work on the part of Bungie, and it also means that the core story and campaign that the game ships with [i]does[/i] need to have a sense of being bookended with that last main chapter.
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1 Reply[quote] How would you theme different game modes to make them fit into the lore of Destiny?[/quote] Campaign is an optional multiplayer, just as multiplayer is optional if you just want campaign. I think the World of Destiny will be our menu. Different locales within the Last City will provide those extra modes we love bundled up with all Halo games: Competitive PvP, Forge, Custom Games, Theater. These should and might be implemented through different buildings or play spaces within the city. The PvP in the Holosseum, the Forge in the Engineering Bay, Custom Games in the Simulator, and Theater in none other than an actual Theater. The Holosseum will host the multiplayer matches. You can enter yourself in, and wait in a lobby. The system will match you up, and you can start the match, unless of course, you wager some gear eager to see if the other players will accept your ante. Why leave the gambling to just the participants? Include a spectator mode to allow other players to gamble on individuals or teams and watch via pan cam or 3rd person view in real time. The Holosseum is nothing more than a blank slate without the Engineering Bay. Here, an all too familiar forge will reside for you to "program" your own map render by the Holosseum. You can take your "saved programs" over to the Simulator which uses a series of incomprehensible, but harnessed, space magic fields to modify player traits. The Simulator is open to friends or perhaps even strangers who stumble inside. Finally, with all the advanced gear that goes into the standard helmet of the future, a recorder is watching everything you see. You can take these "clips" over to the private Theater to relax and re-watch, maybe even study your mistakes. Over in the Public section of the Theater, you can watch "clips" played at random from a pool of "clips" submitted by Guardians daring enough to endure public scrutiny or win public praise. And of course, Campaign is everywhere but the Last City.
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2 Replies[quote]Finally, Destiny needs to evolve and grow as time goes on. In Bungie's Halo players would often experience the Campaign once and never touch it again because they had "completed" the story. That's a lot of effort and time invested by Bungie to create these expansive play spaces that are only good for one use before fading into obscurity.[/quote] Something that might come into play over the 10 year period is seeing how The Last City On Earth will expand. Will Bungie add New Buildings, New Places as time goes on. If we are fighting BACK our enemies, at some point we need to [i]CLAIM GROUND[/i] and expand the city that we reside in. Some of the more vacant areas could be different 3 yrs down the line than what they are when we first enter the game. Like a growing population in a New City
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Very well thought out. Nicely done, these are good points to keep in mind.
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One advantage they will have is that the modes are inherently being created and launched from the same area. The way I see it is that we will jump into the world and be able to enter "matchmaking" from there either at certain points or by accessing menus. However, it'll all be done while your player is already loaded and you're already in third person within the world/first person within public spaces. I prefer it to be this way as opposed to forcing menus into canon like some games have done before.
